When God made His promise to Abraham, He swore by Himself, because He had no one greater to swear by: "I vow that I will bless you abundantly and multiply Your descendants." Thus it was that Abraham, after patient waiting, attained the promise. Men swear by a greater than themselves, and the oath provides a confirmation to end all dispute; and so God, desiring to show even more clearly to the heirs of His promise how unchanging was His purpose, guaranteed it by oath. God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have failed to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. The Lord is the Eternal One of Israel. He does not lie or change His mind. He is not a man. So He does not change His mind as men do. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

   Now faith means that we have full confidence in the things we hope for, it means being certain of things we cannot see. It was this faith that won their reputation for the saints of old. And it is only by faith that our minds accept as fact that the whole universe was formed by God's command - that the world which we can see, has come into being through what is invisible.

   It was because of his faith that Abel made a better sacrifice to God than Cain, and he had evidence that God looked upon him as a righteous man, whose gifts He could accept.

   It was because of his faith that Enoch was taken to the eternal world without experiencing death. He disappeared from this world because God had taken him, and before that happened, his reputation was that "he pleased God." And without faith it is impossible to please Him. The man who approaches God must have faith in two things, first that God exists and secondly that God rewards those who search for Him. It was through his faith that Noah, on receiving God's warning of impending disaster with reverence, constructed an ark to save his household. This action of faith condemned the unbelief of the rest of the world, and won for Noah the righteousness before God which follows such a faith.

Taken from Heb. 6, I Sam. 15, Jas. 1, Heb. 11, The New English Bible, The New
International Version, The Everyday Bible and The Phillips Translation.
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